Highlands's CI journey

Bear said:
While I do not condone pushing one brand over the other.

I myself wear a AB Bionics HiRes90K Auria *sp?* and I love it.

It is not what I expected a CI to be like, but in my opinion who cares?

I do prefer a hearing aid to a CI, but sadly for me I got little to no benefit from my hearing aid after 20 years of having a benefit. So my choice was to either stay deaf or try a CI and hear again.

After extensively questioning good friends of mine like GTM and others, that have a CI, i decided the risks were worth it for me.

When I went into this, I went into it with one simple goal. To hear music again. If I achieved nothing else but that, then I would still consider it a success. But I have achieved much more than just music.

Unfortunately, with multi-directional microphones, I am not sure if my AB has one. Im not all that interested in the specs of my C.I. The only thing I am interested in is if it helps me to do what I wish to do.

A noisy enviroment is not only hard on us *deaf folks* even hearing people have trouble in a room ful of people all talking loud,tv blaring, music blaring, and still be able to hear what someone is trying to tell you. It gets frustrating for anyone.


I usually try to avoid those very noisy situations. And if I cant I usually just switch my processor off by turning the volume so low I cant hear out of it lol.I know that is not ideal for learning to cope around noisy situations, but hey each to their own is my saying lol.
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Thank you for reminding me of the fact that even hearing people have problems in noise..I think this will be a relatively slow improvement for me over time..
 
GarnetTigerMom said:
Sound like a wonderful way to start your own CI journey to do more research and learning more about it and taking your time to make your desicion in your life. I know making desicion can affect a person life and it sure had affected my life in a good way. If you have any other questions about C.I. and I am open about it. Ask me anytime you ever need to know anything more. I would be happy to to discuss it. I think it was the best thing ever happen to me about the choice I made. :)
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:ty:

yep, the shop owner was very friendly and understood how much I frustrated with my hearing aids.. he's hearing but has an experience with his mom's deafness.. of course,I will have questions to you and other CI users when I need information.. and I must admit that CI decision is more exciting than marriage decision :cool2: (I'm 32 and single man )
 
highlands said:
:ty:

yep, the shop owner was very friendly and understood how much I frustrated with my hearing aids.. he's hearing but has an experience with his mom's deafness.. of course,I will have questions to you and other CI users when I need information.. and I must admit that CI decision is more exciting than marriage decision :cool2: (I'm 32 and single man )
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that a good way of putting it that CI desicion is moer exciting than a marriage desicion, I like how you put it. ha. I am single mother of 38 so I know how that goes.
 
Highlands,

Do you think you will be able to wear CI for the rest of your life until the age of 80 ?

I wonder what would it be like to wear CI at the age of 80 ? Will it work or will it affect agin' nerves to cause health problem or .... ? I am just curious, because I've never seen one elder person that is wearin' CI. :hmm:
 
Maria said:
Highlands,

Do you think you will be able to wear CI for the rest of your life until the age of 80 ?

I wonder what would it be like to wear CI at the age of 80 ? Will it work or will it affect agin' nerves to cause health problem or .... ? I am just curious, because I've never seen one elder person that is wearin' CI. :hmm:
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I don't know if I live till 80 :dunno2:

I found out some older people with CI .. here it is Mr. Ken Gabehart | Dallas Cochlear Implant Program and MED-EL Cochlear Implants :: Symphony of Technology

I don't know exactly if CI would cause problems when I am 70+ :dunno: but I guess it wouldn't be much different... one already gets several tests before implanting .
 
highlands said:
:hmm: what about battery lifetime of speech processors ?
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It would depend on your map and how loud your map is. With my current map I get about 5 days out of each set of batteries (3 batteries in each set). I have the Nucleus Freedom.
 
LuciaDisturbed said:
It would depend on your map and how loud your map is. With my current map I get about 5 days out of each set of batteries (3 batteries in each set). I have the Nucleus Freedom.
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5 days is good :) thanks for the explanation . I see it is related to how the chip inside processor works.
 
Maria said:
Highlands,

Do you think you will be able to wear CI for the rest of your life until the age of 80 ?

I wonder what would it be like to wear CI at the age of 80 ? Will it work or will it affect agin' nerves to cause health problem or .... ? I am just curious, because I've never seen one elder person that is wearin' CI. :hmm:
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I saw a 70 year old man with a CI at my CI clinic a few months ago.
 
LuciaDisturbed said:
It would depend on your map and how loud your map is. With my current map I get about 5 days out of each set of batteries (3 batteries in each set). I have the Nucleus Freedom.
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Also, the program you use has a direct impact on your battery life. I use the 1200pps (1200 pulses per second) program and my batteries last only 2 days. When I was in the clinical trials and tried the 2400pps (if I recall correctly) setting, I was only getting 12 hours out of the batteries. The 800pps program gave me about 5 days, but I preferred the clarity of the 1200 so the tradeoff of less battery life vs better sound (for me at least) was worth it.
 
Good luck on your journey, highlands. I hope that your final destination is all you hope it will be.
 
LuciaDisturbed said:
I saw a 70 year old man with a CI at my CI clinic a few months ago.
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Have you asked him how he feels with his coclear implants ? I am just curious if, he feels the same as he was young or has he experienced any problem throughout his life with his CI ...
 
Maria said:
Have you asked him how he feels with his coclear implants ? I am just curious if, he feels the same as he was young or has he experienced any problem throughout his life with his CI ...
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No, I'm a bit shy. I think he has gotten his CI fairly recently because what he has is a Nucleus Freedom, which is a fairly recent/current model from Cochlear Americas.
 
Good luck Highlands. I know that you are not rushing into this as this is something that you've been tossing around for a while now.
 
Thank you,Jillio and R2D2 :)


R2D2 said:
Good luck Highlands. I know that you are not rushing into this as this is something that you've been tossing around for a while now.
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I prefer slow 'journey' as it will happen only once and irreversible after having done :D
 
Maria said:
Highlands,

Do you think you will be able to wear CI for the rest of your life until the age of 80 ?

I wonder what would it be like to wear CI at the age of 80 ? Will it work or will it affect agin' nerves to cause health problem or .... ? I am just curious, because I've never seen one elder person that is wearin' CI. :hmm:
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Keep your eye on Rush Limbaugh in a couple ears and you most likely will get what you asked for :) My center has told me a majority of their patients are in their 70-80's so they are out there.
 
highlands said:
I've been visiting sites of cochlear implant manufaturers for technical information to decide brand name .. cuz I would like to apply soon..( and I need to consult a clinic next week to see if I would be qualify for a CI )

My first concern is about directional microphones in speech processors. Med-El has no directional microphones and Nucleus does have . I wonder if this is helpful in noisy situations for a cochlear implant user..I need feedbacks from CI users from Med-El , Nucleus and others.. Do you use directional microphones in daily life ?

thanks in advance :)
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I use the Freedom.

Well at first the noise will kill you. :) even with the smart sounds. My expericnce will not be yours of course since we all react and learn to adapt to the new sounds in our own way and time.

The freedom does use 2 mics. and the different programs use those mics differently . Autosensitivity can cut out alot of noise, but then it makes it hard to hear the people speaking. But I loved that feature for months. Now I perfer the Adro, which does it's thing lowering some noises while keeping others louder, thus speech is still loud enough to hear, I do adjust sensitivity as needed to make any noises that are driving me nuts more endurable while not losing the speech sounds. As for hearing in noise, that depends on the noise, I can hear pretty well in the car but if you put me in a bar with all the noise, music and such I do have to rely alot on lip reading.

As for power requirements. With the freedom if my freedom is mapped at 1200 hertz I get fewer days from the batteries, mine is mapped at either 500 or 750 and I get around a week from the batteries before they decide to die.
 
Highlands,

I am glad you are taking your time with this. When I was researching I wanted a clinic, surgeon and my audiologist to be familiar with all three brands. I didn't want to feel like I was going to buy a car and had to go to a specific place that only sold the cars I was interested in, ya know what I'm saying? :)

Although, I have AB and they have a omni-directional microphone on the processor and auxiliary microphone (T-Mic) that is detachable. Considering I haven't heard a darn thing out of this ear in 15 years, I am doing fairly well in quiet and in noise. You get three different programs for different acoustic situations. AB has what is called IDR (Input Dynamic Range) which is fancy schmancy talk for how far you want the microphone to be extended. With the noise program, the IDR is set low, usually 45 and it cuts out a lot of unnecessary sounds. I use this when I am driving and when I go out for dinner and fair well with it. I still have to lipread and I don't think I will ever be able to stop because that is a part of who I am. If the IDR was set higher, you get more sounds. For example yesterday, I have a "music" program with the IDR of 80. I was able to have a conversation with my neighbor that was about 20 feet away and hear what she was saying. They ability to adjust how much input comes from either microphones. It is pretty versatile. My batteries are rechargeable and I have no other option. One battery usually last me 24 hours. I pop one in around 7:30 in the morning and don't take it off until 10:30 at night. Put it back on the next morning at 7:30 and will last me the entire work day.

Pray tell, did you make an appointment with the clinic yet?
 
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